Order In The Classroom

When Darling-Hammond went to observe her daughter's classroom, she learned that the teacher was using a system called Assertive Discipline, developed in the 1970's by Lee and Marlene Canter and now used in many schools across the country. The highly structured system, a mixture of common sense and behavior-modification techniques, stresses rewards and punishments as a way for teachers to "take charge'' of their classrooms. Many teachers and administrators swear by it, but Darling-Hammond was appalled by what she witnessed:

"I saw a group of small children trying hard not to move or speak; a young, inexperienced, and unmentored teacher trying religiously to apply rewards and consequences. The list of names on the board grew whenever someone wiggled or spoke. The children appeared unhappy and confused. The stickers did not do much to offset their distress, since many of the children who got them felt bad about the children who didn't. Virtually all of the 'offenders' that day were boys; most of them were black. None of them had done anything that I could term 'misbehaving' during my visit. But they had broken rules forbidding talking and moving; i.e., normal 5-year-old behavior.''

Takoma Park Elementary School no longer uses Assertive Discipline. And Lee Canter no longer advocates the discipline technique of writing down names on the blackboard. "People such as Linda Darling-Hammond interpret that as something that could be psychologically harmful to the kids,'' says Canter. "Personally, I don't think it is, but I have come out in all my latest materials saying that teachers should not use it. I think especially with kindergarten kids, I would not write their...